Wednesday - Opening to navigation of the Suez Canal solemnly inaugurated with a long line of ships, at the head of which theEagle, French imperial yacht that has on board Empress Eugenia (Maria Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox y Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, known as Eugenia de Montijo - Granada 5 May 1826 - Madrid 11 July 1920 -, nineteenth countess of Teba and tenth countess of Montijo, was empress of the French from 1859 to 1870 by virtue of his marriage with Napoleon III, was the last sovereign of France).
The Mediterranean Team participates, for the occasion deployed in Alessandria, composed of the armored units Roma, captain ship, Castelfidardo, Varese, Messina, the frigate Prince Umberto and the notice look-out. The effort to send so many units in spite of the known economic difficulties in which the country was suffering, well expressed the Italian interest in the new maritime communication route; shortening the routes to Asia, the Canal revalued the Red Sea that has suddenly become close to the Mediterranean (today's strategic concept of the "enlarged Mediterranean").
[The cutting of the Suez isthmus started on the 25 in April 1859 by the French engineer Lesseps according to the project by the engineer Luigi Negrelli from Trentino, had a length of 162 km, presented on the bottom a wide plateau just 22 m, deep only 8 me measured on the surface a width of 58 m. Along the entire channel there is a constant flow of water from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and Suez has tides of up to more than one meter. The transit is only daytime - it will also be night-time only from the 1887- and must necessarily be completed with the car (the sailing ships in tow) in the convoy and under the direction of a local pilot, because, especially in the curvilinear stretches and because of the landslides of the banks , the risk of stranding is high]
